Thursday, September 29, 2011

There are two hats buried in this pile of accessories I'm working on, and both are knit out of this deep green, called Oz. I love the dark green, but it's giving me a hell of a time coming up with drinks, and I keep coming back to herbs instead.

I know Basil and Mint aren't exactly drinks, but they are some of my favorite things to put IN the drinks, so I think I'll be OK here.

You'd be amazed how hard it is to think of cocktails that work with green, and if you look back at my patterns, you'll see I've used up most the drinkable ones. Beyond Mojitos and Margaritas, you fall into the land of Grasshoppers and other Creme de Menthe concoctions, which personally, I'm thinking are little more than a headache in a glass once you're past Freshman Year in college.

Lucky for me, the vintage cocktail brochures are all unpacked and on the cookbook shelves, so I do have a few interesting pages to share from my extensive reasearch:

This book has the least appetizing photo of the grasshopper that I could find.

It looks a lot like the healthy grass shots they sell in juice bars. And the other two drinks on the page didn't fare much better in the printing process - or maybe these were considered appetizing colors in 1972. The pink one is called a Pink Squirrel, and it's a scary shade of bubble gum cough syrup, made from Creme De Almond, white Creme De Cacao and actual cream. Which should all be white things right? Nope. The almond is surprisingly - red, hence the pink! The Brandy Alexander in the middle is the most normal color, and could be pretty good. It looks a lot like coffee and is made from cream, brandy and creme de cacao. Not so bad.

The Grasshopper, by the way, is made from Green Creme De Menthe, creme De Cacao and cream. Honestly, not so bad either, if you can get past the crazy green color, which I kind of can't.

But, for those of you in the mood for a green cocktail that couldn't possibly taste good, there's this one. I'm not trying it unless dared to - with a good payoff - but I don't think I'm out on a limb saying it'll taste like crap without having tasted a sip. This guy is called a Sundown. Equal parts, Green Creme de Menthe and ... ready? the obvious choice to compliment that: Grapefruit juice. Right?

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Along with the cocktails, I found the following recipe, which could be made to accompany your Sundown:

Vegetables Mock Amandine

1 package frozen green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, or carrots

2 tbs butter

2 oz Creme De Almond

I'm thinking this is perfect for a Halloween Party. Looks scary (brains and blood) AND tastes scary too.

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Lastly, I had to share this page, which I can't believe I missed before.

It's an article with all kinds of benign tips on decor, invites, and snacks. Nothing too interesting. But, I'm pretty sure the real way to make a happening party happen is pretty much to invite the guy in the bottom left hand corner to serve drinks, like they did. With the sideburns and sweet ponytail and and a tray of crazy concoctions. Am I right? He reminds me a little of a young Vincent Price.

Anyways, I should get back to the pattern writing. I really do have a list of basil and mint drinks that will be tasty, don't worry. And the hat patterns should be out in mid October, just in time to begin holiday knitting. I'm putting both into one PDF, so you'll get two patterns in one, and a whole list of drinks at once - none of which combine grapefruit juice with anything besides gin or vodka. Promise.

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comments:

Thea Thea thanks for the memories and the laugh! My mother (now 93!) used to drink grasshoppers on Thanksgiving while preparing the dinner. Which often resulted in overly-salted gravy -- and a long-time family joke!

I love reading your drinks recipes, even though I'm a wimp and can't get past chardonnay. But in that happenin' picture, the girls all look cute and all the guys look like cretins, the 70's was a bad time for fellas.

Mojitos!!! And please have one for me - since mint leaves no longer exist in my part of the universe - seasonally - and this IS as far south as I have ever lived........but who knows what the future holds?!

OMG, my grandmother used to drink Pink Squirrels whenever we went to the (for our little town) swank steakhouse for dinner. We always wondered what they were, and one night I had a bartender try to make me one and it smelled and tasted like paint.

Anyhoo, what about Chartreuse? I like the absinthe idea too. And there's vinho verde from Portugal, which is really a white wine, but it has a lovely tinge of green if you look at it in the right light.